AFQB: use of rose vestments on the vigil of Laetare or Gaudete Sunday

I got the following question via e-mail:

Dear Father,

Laetare Sunday is almost upon us and the servers at my church have been earnestly debating a question you’re better placed to answer than most. Is it the case, as people used to say in the 1960s, that rose vestments can only be worn on two days of the year, next Sunday and Gaudete Sunday? Shouldn’t they also be worn on the Saturdays previous for vigil masses in both forms of the rite and — in spite of the fact that Saturday vigils as a substitute for Sunday’s obligation were a novelty of the 60s — surely there must be licit EF vigils nowadays in places like the Brompton Oratory ? Secondly, what about using rose during ferial masses during either week ? I’m sure younger priests would  be grateful for guidance.

First, yes, it is still the case that rose (rosacea) vestments can be used only two days of the year.  Therefore, it is important to consider what is "day" is.

A liturgical day begins in the evening.  So, for example, in the Novus Ordo when using the 2002 Missale Romanum on Saturday or the Vigil of a day of obligation, you use whatever Mass it for that Saturday until late afternoon, when you would start using the Sunday Mass texts (or proper Vigil Mass texts, as in the case of the day before Ascension Thursday.

So, for Laetare and Gaudete in the Novus Ordo, you can use rose vestments when celebrating the anticipated Sunday Mass on Saturday evening.

I would also add that we interpret laws in a way that favors our needs.  So, the 1983 Code helps us understand that our Sunday can extend beyond the mere liturgical day, all the way into the evening.  So, if you had a Sunday Mass a, say, 8 pm, it is still Sunday, even though we are past Second Vespers and one might be able to called it, liturgically speaking, already Monday.  Again, laws favor our needs.

As far as the Extraordinary Form is concerned, I don’t know about places using the older Missale Romanum on a Saturday evening as an anticipated Mass for the Sunday, that is, celebrating the Sunday Mass on Saturday evening.  Maybe there are such places, but I doubt it.  Perhaps someone will have heard of one and will post a comment.  In any event, if someone were saying the Laetare Sunday TLM on a Saturday evening, they would I suppose use rosacea if available.  Why not?  It is liturgically already Laetare Sunday.

However, if a correct TLM for the Saturday is celebrated on a Saturday evening, at the time a Novus Ordo anticipated Sunday Mass would be offered, one fulfills ones Sunday obligation, even though the Mass used was the Saturday Mass and not the Sunday Mass.  The 1983 Code of Canon Law states that we fulfill our obligation by participating at Mass in a Catholic Rite on the Sunday, or day of obligation, or on the vigil of the Sunday or day of obligation.  The texts don’t have to be of the Sunday, but it does have to be Mass in a Catholic Rite.

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33 Comments

  1. Father Julian Large says:

    Dear Father,
    When a Mass in the Extraordinary Form is celebrated at the Brompton Oratory on a Saturday evening, it is always the Mass of that Saturday, never the Sunday Mass.
    With prayers and best wishes,
    Yours sincerely,
    Fr Julian Large,
    The London Oratory,
    Brompton Road, London SW7

  2. Dr. Lee Fratantuono says:

    Father, I must respectfully disagree on one point. In the 2002 Missale, the Masses for…for example…the Vigil of the Ascension, and the Vigil of the Epiphany…are meant for evening use on the night before. There are proper Masses for the ferias on Wednesday before Ascension and on January 5 that are used in the morning through midafternoon. The proper Vigils are meant for evening use, not morning. FR Z: I edited my top entry to make a change about this.]

  3. Gregor says:

    “A liturgical day begins in the evening. So, for example, in the Novus Ordo when using the 2002 Missale Romanum wherein there is are new texts for a Vigil of Ascension (which should be on THURSDAY,… but I digress), you would use the Vigil of Ascension Mass up to the late afternoon when you would then begin using the Mass for Ascension THURSDAY (even if it is on Sunday… bah!… but I digress).”

    I don’t think this is correct. [FR Z: I edited my top entry to make a change about this.] In the official directories for the German and Austrian dioceses, it is always indicated that for Vigil Masses (i.e. anticipated Holy Day Masses) the Vigil Mass in the Missale is to be used, e.g. on the Wednesday before Ascension (yes, it’s still on Thursday over here) all Masses which fulfill the Sunday obligation on the Saturday, in the afternoon or in the evening, use the proprium of the Vigil Mass. This is what the Vigil Mass is for. On the morning of the day before, the proprium of that day, e.g. the proprium of the Wednesday of the 6th week of Eastertide, is to be used.

    “So, the 1983 Code helps us understand that our Sunday can extend beyond the mere liturgical day, all the way into the evening. So, if you had a Sunday Mass a, say, 8 pm, it is still Sunday, even though we are past Second Vespers and one might be able to called it, liturgically speaking, already Monday.”

    Not quite, I think. In fact, it is the other way round: The liturgical Sunday or Solemnity begins on the eve of the day before, whereas the actual Sunday only begins on 12:00 pm, as far as the law is concerned: if a term ends on a Saturday, you can fulfil your obligation until 12 pm of that Saturday. As for the Sunday evening, it belongs to the Sunday in both senses, i.e. legally and liturgically. It would only be “already” Monday liturgically, if that Monday were a Solemnity that outranks that particular Sunday.

    As for the extraordinary form, since anticipated Masses did not exist before the reforms, I would also have thought that the practice described by Fr Large is the correct one, since you can of course fulfil your obligation regardless of the proprium that is used, as you rightly explain.

  4. eweu says:

    Prior to January 2007 in the Diocese of San Jose in California, Bishop Patrick McGrath had granted permission for the FSSP to offer one TLM a month. It was always a High Mass at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday evening but the Mass was proper for the next day, Sunday.

    (Bishop McGrath revoked that permission in December 2006 so this Mass no longer takes place. The TLM has been moved to a teeny tiny chapel, but Sunday Mass is only offered on Sunday. The good news is that we have four Sunday Masses every week now.)

  5. Fr. Pasley says:

    With fear and trepidation, I humbly submit that there is a regularly scheduled anticipated Mass, on Sundays and all Holy Days of Obligation, at Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin NJ. At each of these Masses the proper Mass of the Sunday or the Holy Day is used. If there is a Vigil Mass for a Holy Day, it is said in the morning on the day before the feast. In the evening, the day before, the anticipated Mass is the Mass of the Feast Day.
    One may ask why?
    1. Because it can be done according to the 1983 Code of Cannon Law.
    2. It was done this way even before Mater Ecclesiae was founded in 2000AD and so the people were used to it and no one complained.
    3. Because there are people who come as far away as 75 miles. On Holy Days, this is the only opportunity for them to attend the Extraordinary Form.
    4. Because we need to have three Masses on every Sunday and Holy Day, and because we have only one priest hearing confessions before Mass, saying Mass, preaching, and giving out communion. It is almost impossible to do all of this in one morning, unless, of course, you want the priest to have a stroke.
    5. Let us use every chance we get to have more people, at every possible moment attend the Mass and receieve all the spiritual benefits.
    6. Finally, If you do not like it, don’t come.

  6. Dr. Lee Fratantuono says:

    My wish would be that we would have more emphasis on liturgical catechesis and less on the “obligation and when I can fulfill it” issue.

    For example, most parishes in the USA have a Saturday night Mass (I have yet to figure out why Saturday night is so popular and Sunday night comparatively unpopular, but oh well).

    Yet the truth is, despite permissions for these anticipated Masses, not every Saturday night is liturgically Sunday. For example, on Saturday, August 15, the evening – Vespers – is the Assumption. The Assumption Mass would be perfectly legitimate. Of course the anticipated Sunday Mass is also licit – but it seems strange. I mean really, on Saturday, December 25, would a place really offer the anticipated Mass for the Holy Family? I imagine so. I’ve seen the truly bizarre liturgical scenario of the anticipated Epiphany on Saturday, January 1. It offended every bone of my liturgical body, however licit according to the rubrics/permissions.

    In an age allegedly more liturgical sensitive, I wish some pastor would educate his people in the changing cycles of feasts and solemnities, and why some evenings are out of the ordinary. This would be liturgically preferable to a world where the height of litugical discourse is whether there will be a Saturday night Mass to “fulfill my obligation”.

  7. Fr. Pasley: What a delight to see you here!

    Thanks for posting about this. Your reasons seem very … reasonable to me!

    o{]:¬)

  8. Gregor says:

    “Because it can be done according to the 1983 Code of Cannon Law.”

    While I am not saying that it is not possible to celebrate an anticipated Sunday/Holy Day Mass in the extraordinary form (I think the situation is somewhat unclear, and therefore while the practice of the Brompton Oratory appears preferable to me, the opposite practice can I think also be defended), I would like to point out that the Code of Canon Law does not regulate liturgical law. The canon in question (can. 1248) only refers to the fulfilment of the obligation to hear Mass, not to the question which formularium is to be used. I think it would be useful if Ecclesia Dei could clarify the question which formularium is to be used, too, if it hasn’t already done so.

  9. Gregorius Minor says:

    Laying aside the reasons given by Fr. Paisley in his comments, there is no warrant for anticipating the Mass of the Sunday on Saturday evening, and the practice of the Oratory as mentioned by Fr. Large is the correct one. However, if one has a rose colored cope, it may be used at sung Vespers on the Saturday evening before Laetare.

    In the third week of Advent, since the Mass “Gaudete” is repeated on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, rose may be used.

  10. Dr. Lee Fratantuono says:

    It is not correct practice to use the rose vestments outside the Sunday. The rubrics specify they are used in the Office and Mass of the Sunday only, not when the Sunday Mass may happen to be repeated.

  11. Fr. Large: Thanks for that helpful information! Give my best to your Provost, Fr. Harrison.

  12. Joshua says:

    Fr. Z,

    IIRC, in the 2003 MR, in the De Calendario section there is a rubric that says that a liturgical day runs midnight to midnight, and then Canon law says you can anticipate an obligation on the evening before a liturgical day. I might be wrong about this, but I am pretty sure I am right because I remember being struck by it (unless there is another rubric that makes it different for Sundays and Solemnities?)

  13. Michael says:

    Gregor: Please note, 12pm(post meridiem)doesn’t really exist, nor does 12am. It’s 12 midnight.

  14. Jrny says:

    Dr. Lee Fratantuono,

    I agree wholeheartedly with your comments concerning the liturgical correctness of anticipating a Sunday Mass when in fact, the Saturday preceding is a Feast of the First or possibly Second Class. Of course, in such case, usually the liturgical onset of Sunday is delayed until Midnight. I also wondered whether it is licit or not to celebrate the Mass of Sunday the evening before when the Sunday does not liturgically begin with I Vespers. It would seem strange considering there is no longer a liturgical basis behind the reasoning in the Canon Law.

    And yes many times over to your point about the need for liturgical catechesis.

  15. Patrick says:

    The practice at the oratory seems less favorable to me (no offense intended, Fr Large). To be offering a Saturday Mass at the time of Sunday’s First Vespers seems a bit odd, even if Vespers at the Oratory is delayed until after Mass. There is, of course, no guidance for this in the 62 Missal, since evening Masses were rather rare at that point in time (aside from the Triduum). To say that there is no warrant to anticipate the Sunday Mass on Saturday evening is a bit strange. The Church allows Sunday Mass to be anticipated on Saturday evening. That is your warrant. Saturday evening is Sunday, liturgically speaking, so to use texts from the previous liturgical day seems incorrect. Besides, it give seminarians a chance to get to the EF for Sunday Mass :)

  16. I well remember many Latin Mass Society Masses in the UK taking place on vigils. Especially the Mass for the feast of the Assumption at Holly Place, Hampstead every year on 14th August.

  17. Richard says:

    Does this help with the awkward issue discussed a while ago of binating and trinating? If a priest is offering a Sunday Mass on Saturday evening, and two others on Sunday, is he trinating or only binating on the Sunday? If the latter, then he could presumably also offer an EF Mass on the Sunday evening.

  18. A supplementary question for you, Father Z.
    You’ve seen Gregorius Minor’s argument re wearing rose for ferial masses on the Monday, Tuesday and Thurday following Gaudete Sunday, on the rationale that they use the same texts. Are you persuaded or do you still maintain that rose can only be worn on two liturgical days?

  19. Christophorus says:

    A truely weird event is when Christmass is on a Monday in the Traditional Usage.
    The 4th Sunday of Advent only occurs at 1st Vespers on Saturday (since Sunday is
    the 1st Class Vigil of Christmass — without 1st Vespers).

    When two 1st class feasts (or two Solemnities) occure on ‘neighboring’ days the
    conflict of vespers is called ‘concurrance’ and both usages have a table for
    which vespers is used (the prior day’s 2nd or the next day’s first).

    I that this would say whether an evening is the end of the day’s feast
    or the begining of tomorrow’s.

    pax et bonum

  20. If Father Zuhlsdorf is “persuaded” you can only wear rose vestments twice a year, it’s because the rubrics say explicitly that the color is only worn during the Office and Mass of the SUNDAY. Not the feria that might happen to use the Sunday texts (but is still a feria), but the Sunday.

    Rose is not properly worn during the week, only on the two Sundays in question, both at the Hours and the Mass.

  21. David O'Rourke says:

    1) I wonder if this discussion might make a little bit of a dent in the abuse whereby the Saturday Evening Dominical Mass is referred to as a Vigil Mass. This seems to be less common in Canada than in the USA but in any case it is quite wrong. A Vigil Mass has an entirely different Proper from the Mass of the next day. Sundays, with the exception of Easter, have a First Vespers which marks the beginning of the Sunday and thus the Mass celebrated is the Sunday Mass. It is possible to celebrate a Mass other than the Sunday Mass in the evening, e.g. a Nuptial Mass but I don’t believe this Mass would fulfill the Sunday obligation.

    2) Patrick is NOT correct when he says that evening Masses were rare in 1962. From the time they were allowed (in the late 50’s), afternoon and/or evening Masses were quite common e.g. on Holydays of Obligation, First Fridays and the weekdays in Lent to give but a few examples.

    3) The rules for Concurrence could get a bit complex but it would seem that if the two consecutive feast days were of e equal rank and if they rated a First Vespers, the rule was that Second Vespers of the first day would be said with a commemoration of First Vespers of the next day and then any other commorations e.g. St. Stephan’s Day had a Second Vespers with a commemoration of St. John the Evangelist followed by a Commemoration of the Octave of Christmas.

    4) In the days of my pre-Vatican II youth I remember seeing rose vestments worn on the Wednesday after Laetare Sunday but I believe it was considered to be a disputed point.

    5) Regarding the original question, Laetare Sunday, (both the day and the Office), begins with First Vespers so Rose vestments could be used at the Sunday Mass celebrated that evening.

  22. Shane says:

    Where does the canon law say anything about the Liturgical day? I can’t find it.

  23. Does this help with the awkward issue discussed a while ago of binating and trinating? If a priest is offering a Sunday Mass on Saturday evening, and two others on Sunday, is he trinating or only binating on the Sunday? If the latter, then he could presumably also offer an EF Mass on the Sunday evening.

    Correct! Canon law on bination and trination refers to the twenty-four hour period from midnight to midnight, so the situation described above is perfectly legitimate.

  24. Shane: Where does the canon law say anything about the Liturgical day? I can’t find it.

    It doesn’t.

  25. I don’t know about places using the older Missale Romanum on a Saturday evening as an anticipated Mass for the Sunday, that is, celebrating the Sunday Mass on Saturday evening. Maybe there are such places, but I doubt it. Perhaps someone will have heard of one and will post a comment.

    At the Carmelite Monastery in Munster, IN there is an anticipated Sunday (Traditional Latin) Mass at 5 pm every Saturday. I was told (hearsay) that this was done because the bishop would not allow it on an actual Sunday. Perhaps this will change in a post-SP world.

  26. Joshua says:

    The old rite rubrics stated that a liturgical day ran from midnight to midnight

    The new rite rubrics say that it runs midnight to midnight, but on Sundays and Solemnities the celebration begins at I Vespers.

  27. Greg Smisek says:

    Sorry for the long post, but there is precious little about the celebration of anticipated Mass for Sundays and holy days of obligation (vs. true Vigil Masses) in liturgical law, and I thought others might find the sources useful.

    It surprised me to learn that the anticipated Mass is tied directly to the extension of the Mass obligation in liturgical law (made universal only with the 1983 Code of Canon Law), even though the Mass obligation itself is fulfilled regardless of the formularies used at Mass. It is also clear that there is some leeway in practice, at least for the ordinary form of the Roman Rite.

    I’d be interested to know how others would apply or not apply these sources to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite.

    1) J. Huels and T. Willis, “What Time for Anticipated Masses?” Emmanuel 1990:

    For nowhere in the church’s history [prior to the 1960s] can one find the celebration of the Sunday eucharist on a Saturday evening. Whereas the Sunday vigil is nearly as ancient as Christianity itself, the celebration of Sunday eucharist during the vigil is a novelty and should be recognized as such.

    2) The evening Masses that Pius XII universally allowed were for the same day, not the preceding evening (Christus Dominus [6 January 1953], Rule VI; Sacram Communionem [19 March 1957], n. 1).

    3) General Rubrics, 1960 (published in the 1962 Roman Missal):

    4. A liturgical day is a day sanctified by liturgical services, especially the sacrifice of the Mass and the Church’s public prayer, that is, the divine office. It runs from midnight to midnight.

    5. Of itself, the celebration of a liturgical day runs from matins through compline. There are more solemn days, however, whose office begins with 1st Vespers on the preceding day.

    Finally, there is a liturgical celebration which is not a full celebration but only a commemoration in the office and Mass of the current liturgical day.

    4) J. Huels and T. Willis, “What Time for Anticipated Masses?” Emmanuel 1990:

    In the 1960s and 1970s indults were granted by the Holy See to local ordinaries in various countries permitting anticipated Masses of Sundays and holy days on the previous evening, and in some places also on the previous afternoon.

    5) Sacred Congregation of Rites, instruction (Eucharisticum Mysterium (1967), n. 28:

    Where permission has been granted by the Apostolic See to fulfill the Sunday obligation on the preceding Saturday evening, pastors should explain the meaning of this permission carefully to the faithful and should ensure that the significance of Sunday is not thereby obscured. The purpose of this concession is in fact to enable the Christians of today to celebrate more easily the day of the resurrection of the Lord.

    All concessions and contrary customs notwithstanding, when celebrated on Saturday this Mass may be celebrated only in the evening, at times determined by the local Ordinary.

    In these cases the Mass celebrated is that assigned in the calendar to Sunday, the homily and the prayer of the faithful are not to be omitted.

    What has been said above is equally valid for the Mass on holy days of obligation which for the same reason has been transferred to the preceding evening.

    6) [New calendar only:] Sacred Congregation of Rites (Consilium), General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar, 21 March 1969:

    3. The liturgical day runs from midnight to midnight, but the observance of Sunday and solemnities begins with the evening of the preceding day.

    11. Solemnities are counted as the principal days in the calendar and their observance begins with First Vespers of the preceding day. Some also have their own vigil Mass for use when Mass is celebrated in the evening of the preceding day.

    61. If the same day were to call for celebration of Vespers of that day’s office [Vesperae Officii currentis] and First Vespers of the following day [I Vesperae diei sequentis], Vespers of the day with the higher rank in the Table of Liturgical Days takes precedence; in cases of equal rank, Vespers of the actual day takes precedence.

    7) The Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, in a Note on the instruction Eucharisticum mysterium (May 1974; Notitiae 11 [1974] 222-224; Documents on the Liturgy, n. 3837) considers the various conflicts between occurring (conflicting) solemnities, holy days of obligation, and Vigil Masses. It states broadly, “These and like cases cannot be resolved by means of a general rule because of differing pastoral considerations and the different customs of the faithful. It gives as “guidelines”: (1) the above general principle that observance of a holy day of obligation takes precedence over other liturgical observances; (2) when Sunday follows a holy day or vice versa, apply the norm for Vespers to an evening Mass; (3) “On vigils of solemnities having a special vigil Mass (Christmas, Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Saint Peter and St. Paul, Assumption) this Mass is said even if the vigil falls on a Sunday”; and (4) the local Ordinary can decide otherwise: “[W]hen pastoral reasons seem to dictate preference of the one Mass over the other, he may even, if necessary, depart from what has been said in the present document.”

    Since this note seems not to be available online, it may be useful to post the entire text somewhere.

    8) Code of Canon Law (1983), can. 1248 §1 [N.B. This extended the Sunday and holy day Mass obligation universally to the previous evening.]:

    A person who assists at a Mass celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the feast day itself or in the evening of the preceding day satisfies the obligation of participating in the Mass.

    9) Congregation for Divine Worship, Notitiae 20 [1984], p. 603:

    Precedence is always to be given to the celebration which is observed under obligation, independently of the liturgical rank of the two conflicting celebrations” praecedentia semper danda est celebrationi quae est de praecepto servanda, independenter a gradu liturgico duarum celebrationum occurrentium.

    10) In the Missale Romanum editio tertia, the only Vigil Mass formularies are the following: Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Christmas, Epiphany, Birth of St. John the Baptist, Ss. Peter and Paul, and Assumption of the B.V.M.

    Thus Masses of other Sundays and solemnities which are celebrated on the preceding evening are not “Vigil Masses” but “anticipated Masses.”

    11) One recently expressed opinion regarding anticipated Masses in the extraordinary form: At a round table discussion on Summorum Pontificum broadcast live by EWTN on 12 September 2007, Msgr. Michael Schmitz, vicar general and provincial superior for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in the United States, said that anticipated Masses for Sundays and holy days of obligation are permitted by Canon law and liturgical rubrics but that they are not ideal.

  28. Anticipated Masses are not a question of rubrics, but rather of liturgical law. They were allowed so that those who could not assist at Mass on Sunday would be able to do so. They are not intended for anyone. One is supposed to be legitimately impeded from attending Mass on Sunday (or the Holy Day). They are everywhere abused. But I digress.

    The color of vestments is joined to the office, not the day. If one celebrates the Mass Gaudete or Laetare the evening before as an anticipate Dominical Mass Rose vestments may be worn. There is no issue of wearing Rose during the following week in the OF since each weekday of Lent and Advent has it’s own proper and the color for that office is violet. In the EF there can only be a question in Gaudete week since its weekdays do not have a proper of their own and the Sunday Mass is resumed on ferias. The rubrics say that violet is the color for ferias of Advent. The days of Laetare week have their own proper and the color is violet.

  29. Greg Smisek says:

    In the interest of completeness, here’s the full text of the above cited Note, which gives guidelines for which Mass to celebrate when holy days of obligations and solemnities pile up in the ordinary form calendar.

    Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship, in a Note on the instruction Eucharisticum mysterium, May 1974; Notitiae 11 [1974] 222-224; translation by T. O’Brien, Documents on the Liturgy, n. 3837:

    The Instruction Eucharisticum mysterium no. 28 states: “Where indult of the Apostolic See permits fulfillment on the preceding Saturday evening of the obligation to participate in the Sunday Mass, . . . the Mass is to be celebrated as assigned in the calendar for the Sunday and the homily and general intercessions are not to be omitted.”

    This is the general norm. But when a holyday of obligation falls on a Saturday or a Monday, a question arises. For on the evening of the first festive day (the Saturday or the Sunday) there is a case of the coincidence of the two liturgical days because “the observance of Sunday and solemnities begins with the evening of the preceding day” (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar no. 3). Also at the same celebration some of the people are there to fulfill the precept for the actual day; others, to fulfill the precept for the following day. For example, it can happen that on the evening of the Fourth Sunday of Advent when it falls on 24 December there is at the one time an evening Mass of the Sunday and of the vigil of Christmas. Similarly, when Christmas falls on Saturday, in the evening there is a simultaneity between the Mass of Christmas and the anticipated Mass of the Holy Family.

    These and like cases cannot be resolved by means of a general rule because of differing pastoral considerations and the different customs of the faithful.

    Accordingly the following guidelines may be offered:

    1. The general principle governing celebrations of the Mass for a day of precept anticipated in the evening is that given in the Instruction Eucharisticum mysterium no. 28.

    2. In the case of a Sunday following a holyday or vice versa, the best way to achieve completeness in the observance of the entire liturgical day is to apply to the celebration of an evening Mass what is laid down in the case of evening prayer, namely, “If the same day were to call for celebration of evening prayer of that day’s office and evening prayer I of the following day, evening prayer of the day with the higher rank in the Table of Liturgical Days takes precedence; in cases of equal rank, evening prayer of the actual day takes precedence” (General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar no. 61).

    3. On vigils of solemnities having a special vigil Mass (Christmas, Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Assumption) this Mass is said even if the vigil falls on a Sunday.

    4. In the light of pastoral circumstances, the local Ordinary is to indicate at the beginning of the year in the diocesan liturgical calendar the practice to be following throughout the diocese; when pastoral reasons seem to dictate preference of the one Mass over the other, he may even, if necessary, depart from what has been said in the present document.

  30. Christopher: Are you persuaded or do you still maintain that rose can only be worn on two liturgical days?

    Ummmm…. yes.

  31. Peter says:

    This will be slightly off topic, but the questions could apply to rose vestements as to those of another colour. Perhaps the rubricians here would care to comment?

    1 For a major feast day is it possible/permissable/apposite to use the BEST set of vestements of the parish, even if they are not of the colour of the day? (this proposition has been put to me previously). Q could apply to OF or EF

    2 To enable the celebration of a Solemn Mass in the EF, is it permissable to use vestments of a colour other than that of the day?

    Peter

  32. Greg Smisek says:

    Peter:

    Regarding your question about wearing the parish’s best set of vestments for a major feast day, in the ordinary form, see:

    Roman Missal third typical edition, GIRM (Latin and U.S. English translation), n. 346:

    346 g) On more solemn days, sacred vestments may be used that are festive, that is, more precious, even if not of the color of the day.

    [USA only] h) Gold or silver colored vestments may be worn on more solemn occasions in the dioceses of the United States of America.

    346 g) Diebus sollemnioribus adhiberi possunt sacrae vestes festivæ seu nobiliores, etsi non sunt coloris diei.

    The U.S. version of n. 346 appears to have been hacked rather mercilessly by committee. Is “gold or silver colored” like “chocolate-flavored”?

  33. I think that “gold or silver colored” means that the fabric can be that color instead of being cloth of gold or cloth of silver. Before the changes, vestments made from cloth of gold or cloth of silver were allowed but vestments made of gold or silver colored fabric were prohibited.

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